10,000 North Carolinians could get student loans forgiven

Greensboro: As many as 10,000 North Carolinians who attended Corinthian Colleges should act quickly to get thousands of dollars in student loans forgiven, Attorney General Roy Cooper said today.

“Many students aiming for a brighter future didn’t get the education they worked and paid for, or the job opportunities they believed they would earn,” Cooper said. “North Carolinians who attended a Corinthian school should take this opportunity to get their student loans forgiven.”

National for-profit school Corinthian Colleges closed in April, 2015 following investigations by Cooper’s office, other state attorneys general and the federal government. It operated a chain of schools under the names Everest College, Everest Institute, Everest University, Heald College, and WyoTech.

While Corinthian did not have campuses in North Carolina, the investigation revealed that thousands of North Carolinians took classes through Corinthian campuses in other states or online and paid for them by borrowing federal student loans.

Information provided to Cooper’s office by the U.S. Department of Education says that as many as 10,684 North Carolinians who attended Corinthian schools could be eligible for forgiveness of their federal student loans. This includes more than 1,000 students in the Triad, more than 800 in the Charlotte area, approximately 700 in the Triangle, and more than 500 in the Fayetteville area.

Of the North Carolina students potentially eligible for student loan forgiveness, more than 8,000 can apply for faster student loan relief through a streamlined process. Students are eligible for streamlined debt relief if they attended Corinthian programs where the school falsely inflated job placement rates for graduates. To participate in the streamlined process, students have to file paperwork proving that they attended one of these programs and stating that they relied on the job placement rate Corinthian gave them.

On average, former Corinthian students who successfully applied for this student loan relief have received approximately $19,000 in loan forgiveness. But as of June 29, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education reported that only 406 North Carolina residents out of the more than 10,000 eligible had applied to have their Corinthian student loans forgiven.

Cooper’s Consumer Protection Division is reaching out to eligible North Carolina students through email, social media, mail and telephone to encourage them to apply for relief from their student debt. Additional information is available online at ncdoj.gov.

Cooper encouraged North Carolinians looking to earn a degree or gain new skills for the workforce to first consider their local community college. Learn more about North Carolina Community Colleges at nccommunitycolleges.edu.

“Our top-notch community colleges offer a range of degrees in fields similar to many for-profit schools, but at fraction of the cost,” Cooper said, speaking at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro.